Bottle washing machine



April'l3, 1954 J. s. MADDAFORD BOTTLE WASHING MACHINE 3 Sheets-Sheet 1Filed Oct. 18, 1949 QM- Q R W -Attor ney April 13719521 J. 5. MADDAFORDBOTTLE WASHING MACHINE 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Oct. 18, 1949 InventorAttorney April 13, 1954 J. s. MADDAFORD 2,675,011

BOTTLE WASHING MACHINE Filed Oct. 18-, 1949 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 AttorneyPatented Apr. 13, 1954 BOTTLE WASHING MACHINE John Stephen Maddaford,Leicester, England, as-

signor to Gimson & Co. (Leicester) Limited,

Leicester, England Application October 18, 1949, Serial No. 121,920

Claims priority, application Great Britain October 18, 1948 4 Claims.

The invention relates to a bottle washing process in which bottles aremounted in radially arranged carriers in a drum subject to stepwiserotation about a horizontal axis and are carried by the drum through asoaking tank and past jets arranged around the drum, whereby the bottiesare soaked and sprayed internally and externally with cleaning liquids,the mouths of the bottles facing inwards for this purpose. So as toensure thorough cleaning it is necessary for the bottles to be treatedwith hot liquids. Machines at present available commercially comprise aplurality of such drums, the bottles being passed successively from onedrum to the next during their passage through the machine, thetemperature of the cleaning fluids being different in the varioussoaking tanks and jets so that progressive heating of the bottles isensured.

7 It is an object of the invention to provide a process which is carriedout in a simpler, more compact and less expensive machine.

In accordance with the invention each bottle is retained in its carrierfor more than one rotation of the drum and the drum is arranged to berotated at each step through more than the distance between the axes ofadjacent carriers, and to bring each bottle to rest in differentpositions in two successive rotations of the drum. In this way a singledrum may be employed to fulfil the function of two or more drums inmachines at present available. The fact that the bottles come to rest indifferent positions during successive rotations make it possible so asto arrange the jets that progressive heating and cooling of the bottlesis ensured.

The invention also includes a machine for enabling this process to becarried out.

The invention is illustrated by way of example in the accompanyingdrawings in which,

Figures 1 and 2 are end views partly in section of the machine,

Figure 3 is an enlarged detail view of a portion of the drum shown inFigures 1 and 2,

Figure 4 is an enlarged view of a portion of the drum viewed from theoutside and Figure 5 is a section taken along the line '5-5 of Figure 4.

Referring to the drawings the drum comprises a pair of flanged cast ironplates ID held together by two rings of bolts H, l2 and containing aplurality of sheet metal plates 43 threaded on the bolts ll, i2 andshaped to form radial carriers for bottles :4 which are inserted fromoutside a drum. Twelve bottles are accommodated in each row of carriersand the machine shown has 45 rows of carriers. The drum is supported byrollers it which are held in stationary end frames, the rollers !5 beingaccommodated within a channel in each end plate it of the drum. Thelower end of each drum dips into a soaking tank is and curved guides iiare provided within the soaking tank to prevent the bottles falling outof their carriers. The drum is rotated by a Genevamechanism includingpinions l8, l9, pin 29 a slotted disc 2! and pinions 22 and 23 thelatter of which actuates a final pinion 24 which engages the outer ringof bolts It on the drum and imparts the requisite: stepwise rotation tothe drum. The drum drive is so arranged that the drum is rotated at eachstep through an angle corresponding to four of the bolts i2 or twicethat between the axes of adjacent rows of bottles M. In this way it isensured that on the second of two successive rotations of the drum, eachbottle comes to rest at a position intermediate to successive restpositions in the preceding rotation.

Automatic bottle injecting and bottle ejecting mechanisms are providedthese having a common disc '25 having a cam groove 26 in which a roller21' engages driving a common linkwork 28, 29, 3|] which ensures that theoperation or" the injector and ejector is correctly timed. The injectorcomprises pivoted links 3! and 32 which operate a pusher bar 33, whichengages the bottom of bottles placed on table 34. The ejector comprisesa frame made up of two slide bars 35 connected together by a channelmember which carries the bottle ejectors 36 which. ejects successiverows of bottles 14 on to the table 3T; The injector and ejectormechanism are'actuated during each pause in the rotation of the drum,and are situated apart by an angle cor' responding to twice the angularspacing between adjacent rows of carriers so that after 'a bottle hasbeen inserted by the injector mechanism it is only engaged by the pusherbar 36 of the ejector mechanism on the second rotation of the drum.

a The soaking tank It communicates with a filter tank 38 whence causticsoda is drawn by a pump 39 and supplied to an external manifold Mprovided with jet nozzles 42, 43, 44, 45 and; to an internal manifold 46provided with jet nozzles il, 48, 49. Liquid from these jets drainsbackdirectly into the soaking tank It.

Hot water is drawn by a pump El from a tank 59 and passes through a pipe52 to an external manifold 53 with rows of jet nozzles t5, 56, 51, andto an internal manifold 58 with rows of jet nozzles 59, 5%, GE, 62.Beneath the nozzles 54, 55, 52, 62 is a drain tray 63 whence the waterpasses through pipe 54 to waste. Beneath the nozzles 56, 5?, 6!, s2, isa drain tray 65 whence water is returned to the tank as through a pipe66.

Cold water drawn from the mains passes through a. pipe 6'! to anexternal manifold 68 having rows of jet nozzles 69, it} and an internalmanifold M having a single row of jet nozzles 72, below which is a draintray '13 whence the drainings pass to waste through a pipe 14 a branchof which passes through valve iii tank 58 and enables a portion of thewater from the drain tray 13 to be used for replenishing the hot watercircuit and to replace hot water lost through pipe 64. During theoperation of the machine each row of bottles is injected by the pusherbar 33 and is carried twice through the soaking tank 16 and twice pastall the jet nozzies before it is ejected. It will however be appreciatedthat since the drum rotates at each step through an angle correspondingto twice the angular spac ing between adjacent rows of bottles, thebottles of a given row will come to rest in different positions insuccessive rotations and will not be sprayed internally by those jetswhich they pass without stopping.

During the first rotation the bottles will come to rest opposite theinternal jets and Gil, where they are sprayed internally with fluid fromthe tank I 6 and which drains back into the tank, and with hot waterfrom the jets The bottles do not come to rest opposite the remainingjets :38, 69, BI, 52 and 1'2. In the second rotation the bottles aresprayed internally first with cleaning fluid from the jet 48, then withhot water from the jet 59, whereby traces of cleaning fluid are removedand pass to waste, again with hot water from the jets 6! and 62, the hotwater being recycled, and finally with cold water from the jets 12.

The bottles are then ejectedby the pusher bar 36. It will be appreciatedthat the primary purpose of the jets 54, 55, 59, 89 is to remove tracesof cleaning fluid and prevent contamination of the contents of tank 5%.

The machine as shown is suitable for the cleaning of bottles which arenot heavily soiled and the cleaning fluid in the tank It may bemaintained at about 35-45 C. and the hot wa-'- ter at approximately thesame temperature for this purpose. Where heavily soiled bottles are tobe cleaned however it may be necessary to heat the cleaning fluid tohigher temperatures, e. g. 60 C. or more and in this case it isnecessary to pre-rinse the bottles with water at about 35 C. This may beeiiected either on a separate machine, or in a manner known for otherrotating drum machines, whilst the bottles are on the table 34, by meansof a jet mounted externally on the wall of the soaking tank 16. For suchpre-rinsing waste water may conveniently be drawn from the pipe 64. Thehot water rinse from jets 54, 55, 52, iiii then acts as a stage in thecooling of the heated bottles.

It will be appreciated that the invention is not limited to atwo'rotation, single drum machine.

I claim'z 1. A bottle washing machine comprising a drum mounted forrotation about a horizontal axis, bottle carriers mounted therein foraccommodating bottles mouth inwardly and spaced in an uneven number ofrows around the periphery of said drum, means for imparting stepwiserotational movement to the drum, a soaking tank through which the drumpasses and spray jets arranged internally and externally of the drum, inwhich machine the drum driving means is arranged to rotate the drum ateach step through an angle corresponding to twice the angle between theaxes of adjacent carriers, so that in the second of two successiverotations of the drum a bottle comes to rest at positions between thoseat which it came to rest in the preceding rotation.

2. A bottle washing machine as claimed in claim 1, in whichautomatic'bottle injecting and ejecting mechanism are provided adjacentthe drum and spaced apart by a distance corresponding to an even numberof times the distance between the axes of adjacent carriers, wherebyeach bottle is carried by the drum for more than one rotation before itis ejected.

3. A bottle washing machine oomprisinga drum mounted for rotation abouta horizontal. axis and suspended by stationery rollers, a soaking tanksrurounding the lower part of the drum, plates mounted within the drumaround the periphery thereof and shaped to form an uneven number ofequally spaced rows of carriers for accommodating bottles with theirmouths inwards, jets mounted outside and inside the drum, means forsupplying the jets with at least two different cleaning liquidsrecyclingmeans for circulating said cleaning fluids and including separatereceptacles in said drum for receiving different used liquids from saidjets, a driving mechanism for the drum for rotating the drum stepwisethrough an angle corresponding to twice the angle between adjacent rowsof carriers, automatic bottle injecting and bottle ejecting mechanismsspaced apart by an angle corresponding to a multiple'being an even wholenumber of the anglar spacing between. adjacent rows of carriers, so thateach bottle is retained in the drum for more than one rotation of thedrum, and in the second of two successive rotations comes to rest inpositions different from its resting positions in the first rotation.

4. A machine as claimed claim 3 in which the angular spacing between thebottle injector and bottle ejector mechanisms is twice that between theaxes of adjacent bottle carriers, so that each bottle is only ejectedduring the sec-- ond rotation of the drum.

iteferenccs Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS2,024,373 Ladewig Dec. 17, 1935

